Fatah vows to step up struggle against occupation

Secular Palestinian movement renews its vow to continue struggle establishment of independent state.

RAMALLAH - The secular Fatah movement led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.

"Our program emphasizes the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation," the movement said in a statement.

The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest against the expansion of Israel's controversial separation barrier.

Fatah, which marks it 45th anniversary on Friday, also vowed to "increase movement on the international level to pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international law."

"We renew our vow to continue the struggle until the end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution to the refugee issue," it said.

Fatah went on to say that it "would not spare any effort in restoring Palestinian national unity and returning the Gaza Strip from the hands of those who have taken it hostage," referring to its Hamas rivals.

The two main Palestinian movements have been divided into geographically separated hostile camps since the Islamist Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007.

The secular Fatah was founded by the late iconic leader Yasser Arafat in the 1950s and formally launched its armed struggle against Israel on January 1, 1964.

Arafat entered into peace negotiations with Israel when he signed the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords, but during the 2000 Palestinian uprising Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, carried out scores of deadly attacks.

When Abbas became president following Arafat's death in 2004 he brought the armed struggle to a halt, but the movement has never given up its "right to resistance" against the Israeli occupation of lands seized in 1967.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=36460.